BTC from BitGrail Wallets Seized by Italian Authorities

BitGrail has announced that authorities have seized the BTC that was stored in their wallets. The Italian cryptocurrency exchange explained that the authorities have done so following a court order by the Tribunal of Florence:

“On June 5, 2018, pursuant to the Tribunal of Florence orders, the bitcoins contained in the company’s wallets were seized an brought under control of the judicial authorities pending further Court decisions in the pre-bankruptcy proceeding.”

The cryptocurrency exchange was the unfortunate victim of a cyber-attack back in February. This led to the loss of around 17 million Nano then worth $187 million. When trading operations shut down, BitGrail CEO Francesco Firano said that refunding could not be possible.

This triggered victims to file the petition that lead to the BTC seizure.

May 3 saw the reopening of BitGrail but this only lasted 3 hours as the Court of Florence had ordered the crypto exchange to shut down operations, to which the exchange said:

“Even though we don’t agree with this decision, we are obliged to respect the law and to suspend any BitGrail business immediately.”